Malaysia-origin vessel seized in Indonesia with 1.16 tonnes of ketamine

JAKARTA: Indonesian authorities seized 1.16 tonnes of ketamine from a Mongolian-flagged vessel that had sailed from Malaysia in the waters off North Sumatra province earlier this week, national police chief Suyudi Ario Seto said on Friday.

Indonesian authorities, including the police and customs office, intercepted the tanker in the waters off Tanjung Balai in the province earlier this week, Seto said.

They arrested seven Indonesians and one Taiwanese national, including the captain, engineers and an oiler, he said.

The ketamine was found in 58 sacks weighing a total of 1.16 tonnes, Seto said. He added that the haul had a street value of 3.48 trillion rupiah (US$192.64 million).

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The tanker departed from Pasir Gudang in Malaysia, transited through the Malacca Strait and headed towards the Andaman Sea, where authorities believe it conducted a ship-to-ship transfer to receive the ketamine.

Authorities had detected 'anomalies' in the vessel's Automatic Identification System before intercepting it, Seto said.

The quantity of drugs demonstrated how destructive "international syndicates are to our national security", he added.

Later on Friday, Seto said authorities in the Indonesian province of Aceh had found 1.2 tonnes of methamphetamine, worth about 2.16 trillion rupiah, at a clandestine laboratory.

Indonesia has strict drug laws and in 2015 executed two Australians from the 'Bali Nine' drug ring for attempting to smuggle heroin out of the resort island of Bali.